Starting Over (1979)

	Directed by: Alan J. Pakula	COUNTRY USA GENRE Romantic comedy/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE - RUNNING TIME 105 minutes
	Produced by: James L. Brooks Alan J. Pakula
	Written by (based on the play by Dan Wakefield): James L. Brooks

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Phil Potter	Burt Reynolds
Marilyn Holmberg	Jill Clayburgh
Jessica Potter	Candice Bergen
Mickey Potter	Charles Durning	½
Marva Potter	Frances Sternhagen	½
Marie	Mary Kay Place	-
Paul	Austin Pendelton	-
Larry	Jay O. Sanders	-
Workshop member	Wallace Shawn	-
John Morganson	Sturgis Warner	-
Student 2	Daniel Stern	-

Review

Despite two accomplished performances by Burt Reynolds and Jill Clayburgh, combined with a patient, earnest look at divorce and dating for 30-somethings in the late 1970s, Starting Over never really comes alive. Alan J. Pakula (Klute, The Parallax View, All the President's Men) united with the up-and-coming television writer James L. Brooks (later of Terms of Endearment) in what in retrospect would seem like a superteam, but this is not Brooks' strongest work. His script lacks sting – a personal identity. When the restrained, serious divorcee Reynolds meets the apprehensive nursery-school teacher Clayburgh, you root for them, but perhaps more intellectually than emotionally. They are a very 1970s urban movie couple, for better or worse. They do things like shop for furniture, and their physical attraction is similarly mundane. There is sympathetic supporting work, particularly from Charles Durning and Austin Pendelton, and an odd performance by Candice Bergen, who is supposed to be irresistibly sexy and some sort of comic relief at the same time. Her character creates an imbalance that makes the love triangle in the movie's third part off-putting.